gobevsgongWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“gobe” and “gong” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,359
“gobe” frequency rank
#25,337
“gong” frequency rank
72696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gobe gong
Definition Variante orthographique de gobbe. Percussion d’Extrême-Orient, composée d’un disque de métal dont on tire des sons retentissants en le frappant avec une baguette garnie de peau.

Where the eye mixes gobe and gong

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gobe (CVCV) and gong (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
gobe
4 ch
gong

Look-alike desk: gobe vs gong

A purely visual mix-up. gobe (\ɡɔb\) and gong (\ɡɔ̃ɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gobe is recorded at frequency rank #47,359, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔb\. gong is at rank #25,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔ̃ɡ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 72696, this pair ranks #43,085 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gobe vs gong

Shared letters: go. Private to "gobe": be. Private to "gong": n.

"gobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gobe ← gboe · ggobe · gobbe · goeb · ogbe
  • gong ← ggong · gnog · gogn · gongg · gonng · ogng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gobe" and "gong" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔb\ versus \ɡɔ̃ɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gobe" vs "gong" - which ranks higher?
"gong" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,337 in our French list, against #47,359 for "gobe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "gobe" and "gong" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gong" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,085 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gobe" and "gong" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gobe". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #43,085 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list